Daily News Online
 

Saturday, 7 August 2010

Home

 | SHARE MARKET  | EXCHANGE RATE  | TRADING  | SUPPLEMENTS  | PICTURE GALLERY  | ARCHIVES | 

dailynews
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

Transacting love and goods

A sale person or a salesman is called a Sales Associate in large commercial Stores in the U. S. Big Stores in America like the famous Macy's of New York has a chain of regional big stores in all parts of the country.

This includes the Ohio state and its big cities. In one of the cities -Cincinnati- there was for a long time a flourishing multi-shop was Lazarus.

Macy's amalgamated this business enterprise later and called it Lazarus-Macy's and finally bought over in its large network.

Yours truly had a short stint and watched the changes that were taking place between 2002 and 2004 in the commercial establishment as a sales associate in both the Luggage and Men's Department.

It was a novel and a pleasant experience harvesting goodwill and presenting and promoting the country of my birth - Lanka- to the outer world, particularly the cosmopolitan American citizens.

As Customer Service personnel one obtains a rewarding experience in understanding people, interacting with them, courtesy and developing one's demeanor as a positive and pleasant personality.

Although personal and yet informative to our readers I wish to share a fraction of my limited experiences with you.

Experience 1:

As an Asian amidst them almost all customers liked to know whether I was an Indian. When I tell them I am a Lankan, most of them were curious to know whether our island is in India.

When I explained to them the geographical position of our country, "Ah! Ceylon, the beautiful island we've seen in pictures", they exclaimed. Most westerners are ignorant of other countries in Asia, Africa or Latin America.

They are engrossed with their own problems and do not move away from the western-centred orbit.

Experience 2:

A woman colleague at my workplace genuinely asked me whether elephants roam around the city after having seen a Discovery channel movie on Kandy Perahera.

I had to explain or rather give her and others a mini-lecture on Lanka and they were all astonished to know that our country is something special.

Experience 3

When yours truly was at the cash register serving customers of their purchases, one kid of four or five asked his mother what I was saying in my conversation with her. She told him that yours truly was speaking in an accent which the boy couldn't understand. What she meant was that the manner of my speech was alien to American accent.

In other words except for the elites for instance from New York or academics and highly educated people has a drawl and different accent in speech whereas I was accustomed to the British way of speaking., the aftermath of colonial influence. One other point what the blacks in the U.S. speaks are not always clearly understood by the Whites and others.

Experience 4:

Customers to the Stores make it a point to inform the management in writing whether they are satisfied with the customer service provided unknown to the sales associate. Yours truly in his short span of service at the Macy's earned nearly 250 merit badges in recognition. It's not bragging but true and it shows how human relationship and resources are utilized to promote healthy functioning.

We shall end here on this subject

[email protected]

 

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

Donate Now | defence.lk
www.apiwenuwenapi.co.uk
LANKAPUVATH - National News Agency of Sri Lanka
www.peaceinsrilanka.org
www.army.lk
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk

| News | Editorial | Business | Features | Political | Security | Sport | World | Letters | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2010 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor